The New Monthly Magazine Author:Thomas Campbell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FF.RNEY. ( Rousseau, Voltaire, our Gibbon, and de Staël, Leman ! these names ere worthy of thy shore."—Byron. From Calvin down to Madame de Staël, the b... more »anks of this " lake of beauty" have scarcely ever been without their great man, for it is no bull to include ker in this term. It is true Madame de Staël owed little of her inspiration to her country,—nor was her genius at all of the dry severe order which seems to be its natural product. But still she lived much at Coppet, if she did not much love it; and her name is inseparably interwoven with the associations connected with Geneva and its neighbourhood. But it is her name only. Her residence on the banks of the lake was but the physical, not the mental, locate of her works. Neither, indeed, does the place itself convey any very romantic feelings or ideas ; it is a substantial, and, for the Continent, peculiarly comfortable gentleman's house,—and nothing more. But Ferney is the direct contrary of all this, if we except its outward appearance, which is exactly that of a French chateau, and therefore formal and unsightly enough. But, otherwise, it is, of all places inhabited by men of genius, one which has the greatest claims to interest. It is a name more closely connected with its great owner, than is generally that of the dwelling of any writer. " Da chateau de Ferney" is the date of nearly all those interesting letters, which, like the scattered limbs of Osiris, have been collected since his death. " Le patriarche de Ferney" is the name by which he is familiarly distinguished by his disciples. In a word, Feruey is almost as intimate to the ear of his admirers as his own name. There is scarcely any man, distinguished for intellect, who ranks higher than Voltaire. " He ran Through each mode of the lyre, and w...« less